Putin Kisses Staff of Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church has had a long, bumpy ride until Putin. Peter the Great used the ROC to advance the state, the revolution made it illegal, Stalin flipped both ways finally encouraging it, Khrushchev banned it, as did Brezhnev, Gorbachev allowed it, and now Putin not only embraces it but encourages it as an ally to bolster a failing regime. Is he kissing a gold staff as symbolic of his ass?

Benedict (the rat) and Kirill (the basset hound) , two peas of a pod. Yet, they got those different clothes to show they are from different Christs, churches, and different apostles. They act like friends yet the Vatican is after some ROC territory for conversion to the true church. That’s why they are looking past each other.

Accompanied by ROC Patriarch Kirill, the Russian leader and his host Viktor Yanukovych took part in a prayer service in central Kiev, the first item on Putin’s agenda bulging with events designed to play up historic ties between the two majority Orthodox nations.

Revolution rarely changes the power structure but replaces those in power. An authoritarian state has much in common with an absolutist church that maintains Patriarchal authority and tight control of its people. As an aside communism never could have succeeded in such a rapid ascent against a long history of vicious totalitarians.

Just in case you thought Russia was secular:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised the role of Orthodox Christianity in the country’s history and congratulated the heads of the world’s Orthodox churches on the1025th anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus, a medieval state comprising parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

“The adoption of Christianity became a turning point in the fate of our fatherland, made it an inseparable part of the Christian civilization and helped it turn into one of the largest world powers,” Putin said in a message addressed to participants of a commemorative celebration on Red Square, the Kremlin reported.

“It is Orthodoxy that gave Russia a powerful impetus for the development and rise of culture and education,” the message says.

Krill is an unmitigated conservative ass that thinks women should be chained inside their homes. Only men get to wear the good stuff.

Feminism is a “very dangerous” phenomenon that could lead to the destruction of Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said.

Yep, women wanting jobs is the death of Russia. Feminism has been so bad in Russia that when it first came out it meant women could do jobs and be part of larger socioeconomic society as long as they went home and cleaned house for the man.

“I consider this phenomenon called feminism very dangerous, because feminist organisations proclaim the pseudo-freedom of women, which, in the first place, must appear outside of marriage and outside of the family,” said Patriarch Kirill, according to the Interfax news agency.

“Man has his gaze turned outward – he must work, make money – and woman must be focused inwards, where her children are, where her home is,” Kirill said. “If this incredibly important function of women is destroyed then everything will be destroyed – the family and, if you wish, the motherland.”

The great thing about the complementarity argument is it means equality of the chains. Men must never be inward and women must never be outward. It’s not the division of labor issue that is at stake it’s the freedom to move between divisions. As well as the obvious issues of those who have the money having power–“here, little wifey, be good and I’ll give you some money for shopping but don’t be bitchy or you’ll have to argue for it.

A vocal supporter and close ally of Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill has helped spearhead Russia’s turn toward conservative values. He supported the case against Pussy Riot, the anti-Kremlin feminist punk band tried after performing a song criticising Putin and the church’s explicit support of him, inside a Moscow cathedral. During their trial, prosecutors argued, successfully, that feminism when proclaimed inside a church was heretical.

So much for the freedom of people in Russia. Tearing down that wall only revealed a corrupted authoritarian regime that wants women as breeders, cooks, cleaners, house and yard maintainers, child rearers, supply shoppers, and tube washers (you know what I mean).

Sexism runs rampant in Russia and women’s rights appear nowhere on the political agenda. Putin has made boosting Russia’s low birth rate a key platform of his administration, often cheering women’s role as mothers.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has signed into law a measure that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality.

The lower house of Russia’s parliament unanimously passed the Kremlin-backed bill on 11 June and the upper house approved it last week…

The ban on “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values over western liberalism, which the Kremlin and the Russian orthodox church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to the protests against Putin’s rule.

No, it’s worse. Sexual freedom is the downfall of the state, the world, the universe. Kirill:

“This is a very dangerous apocalyptic symptom, and we must do everything in our powers to ensure that sin is never sanctioned in Russia by state law, because that would mean that the nation has embarked on a path of self-destruction.”

Pussy Riot still has members in jail for singing a 40-second protest song in a church. They were damning Putin’s alliance with the ROC. If only they would repent otherwise–she is retained because she won’t admit guilt of “hooliganism.” Putin has said to leave it to the courts that seem only too willing to make an example of the group and the last two unrepentant members still in jail.

The two members of the Russian activist collective Pussy Riot who remain imprisoned were both denied parole this week. On Friday, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was told by a court in Saransk that she had not sufficiently repented for her act of “hooliganism” in performing at a Moscow Orthodox cathedral last year. Maria Alyokhina received similar news from a court in Perm on Wednesday. Both are being held in prisons near their courts, and are not expected to be released until next year…

Artistically, the collective, known for pop-up appearances in bright dresses and balaclavas, has been relatively silent as the Russian government has drafted laws seemingly aimed at them, from banning the wearing of masks in public to a blasphemy bill that stiffens the penalty for insulting religion. Supporters mimic them.

What Western news folks loved to skip was that Pussy Riot was fighting for secular ideals, separation of Church and State, feminism, Russian capitalism of oil, and sexual freedom. Free Pussy Riot.

Russia is becoming the new nationalization of Religious Fundamentalist ideals. Putin is giving new beauty to the term fascism by embracing a national church to encourage support and return to a Tsarist ideology. While Moscow is more liberal, the rest of the country seeks the growing conservative movement with some 60% support.

I don’t think we’re the only ones who have a problem with Putin. I think the whole planet does. He has done a lot of harm not only to his own Russian citizens but to the whole world. If you are unafraid to express your democratic opinion then it is your duty to come out and say it in his face.

Frankly, your question surprises me because the whole world talks about these problems constantly. Every day they talk about problems regarding Putin in the papers, on the radio. We simply expressed, laconically, what the whole world wants — for Putin to go or, even better, for him to go screw himself.

PR thought Femen too extreme in sawing crosses but hmm, the church wishes to oppress…

It’s sad. While some see this as a foil against the oppression of Christians by Islam, NeoROC looks a lot like fundamental Islam with a Byzantine flavor.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are still in jail because she won’t admit guilt. For 40 fucking seconds playing anitpathetic music in a church.

LOL I guess I was hashing Brezhnev together with Lenin. Thanks for the correction. And no, journalism is not good or bad based on typo’s. I guess Einstein was no great physicist either cuz he often forgot to fasten his belt, tuck his shirt in, or comb his hair. Tsk, tsk.

It is true that writers are no longer paid well and are too rushed to get work out with proper copyediting–the first job that gets lost in downsizing.

Journalists are being fired everywhere because of internet writing as well as for the availability of much easier tools that allow anyone to look like they are a good writer by producing a clean sentence. Many paid journalists have become free bloggers. The entire Huffington Post was started on free work for a company that didn’t deserve it.

When writers get paid a decent wage, and get paid, editing support, then they will take the time to make it look as good as the content it contains.

Frankly, I am just glad to get some writing out to people who may make a change in the world!